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Show 156 John Tanner and His All this while Nathan Family being held family. unpleasant stay was a prisoner by the mob, unable to go to the assistance of his in Missouri, all of the the short and adult men of the family were in the hands of the mob for periods ranging up to six weeks. They were tried in the courts for crimes such as arson, theft, murder, treason, burglary, larceny, and perjury. It must have seemed strange for men of their character to be charged During with such heinous crimes. Of all the members of the Tanner family probably none paid high a price for Mormonism as Louisa Maria, the durable daughter of John and Lydia. Madly in love with the dashing Mormon M. Amasa Lyman who visited their home at Bolton soon missionary after they embraced Mormonism, she accepted his offer of marriage and was married June 10, 1835, in Kirtland at the age of sixteen. as Having grown up in the Tanner home, Louisa Maria was accustomed and, like most girls of her age, to all the comforts available at the time had no idea what Her soon marriage husband, who became prominent meant was beyond the vague notion of love. converted to Mormonism, bidding of its thoroughly in the church and did the on mission after mission so that he was gone the time. Maria's home, when she had a home, was mostly with her parents or brothers, as Amasa was unable to provide one. leaders which took him most of This gritty slip of a girl bore a child (Matilda) at Kirtland in 1836; another (Francis Marion) at Goodhope, illinois, in 1840; a third (Ruth) at Shokoken, Illinois, in 1843; and a fourth (Amasa Mason) at Nauvoo, in 1846, with scarcely a roof over her head and her husband away on the Saints were endeavor Amasa was crossing and re Nauvoo and husband to evacuate ing to the carry out church assign Mississippi, frantically trying crossing ments and keep track of a wife who badly needed his attention. In and much of the time with mobs howling church missions. The fourth child arrived emergencies such as this, church work as came To add still further to Maria's cross, first. some time before the pro phet's death, he had taught Amasa the law of Celestial Marriage, including the plurality of wives, with the explanation that his salvation depended on his obedience to the principle. Amasa, always obedient to the counsels of the prophet and anxious to assure his celestial ex altation, married an additional seven wives, most of them during the troublesome times between the prophet's death and the exodus from Nauvoo. 24 |
